The present invention relates to a method of discarding unwanted sheets of material from an image recorder or the like.
An image recording method in which a photosensitive material and an image-receiving material are used to record an image is disclosed in commonly assigned Japanese Patent Application No. 121284/85. In this method, a recording material having a coating of a photosensitive composition is employed. In the photosensitive composition, a carrier is coated with at least a photosensitive silver halide, a reducing agent, a polymerizable compound and a color image forming substance. At least the polymerizable compound and the color image forming substance are encapsulated in mirocapsules. The photosensitive material is exposed to imaging rays of light to form a latent image on the photosensitive material. The photosensitive material is thereafter developed by heating in such a manner that the polymerizable compound of each portion in which the latent image is present is polymerized to form a high-molecular compound so as to harden the microcapsules. In those areas. Subsequently, the photosensitive material is overlaid on the image-receiving material, which has an image-receiving layer to which the color image forming substance can be transferred. The photosensitive material and the image-receiving material are pressed against other so that at least part of the microcapsules in each area in which not latent image is present are ruptured to transfer the color image forming substance in those areas to the image-receiving material. As a result, the image is recorded on the image-receiving material. After the color image forming substance has been transferred to the image receiving material in the above manner the photosensitive material is sent to a discarding section.
If the discarding section is constructed of a tray which accommodates a photosensitive material of relatively large size, such as a sheet of size A3 or A4, the tray must be so large that at least a portion of it projects from the image recorder. Therefore, there is a disadvantage that it is necessary to provide a space to accommodate the projecting tray.
In order to eliminate this disadvantage, a storage box can be provided into which the photosensitive material is passed while the material folds on itself. However, because the material can curve in various manners in the box and gaps occur between the folded portions of the material, there is a drawback in that the number of sheets of photosensitive material which can be accommodated is very small, particularly if the box is shallow.